Heya everyone. I'm currently going into honours biology for second year and bio2a03 is not a required course for me. However, I've noticed that it is "Strongly recommended" for many biology courses in third year, and required for bio3aa3. I've heard that the course is nightmarish in terms of the labs though. Would it be wise to take it at the same time as orgo, or should I hold off on bio2a03 until the summer or the following year?

I havent seen Bio 2A03 offered in summer before...I'm in the same situation

This course is not as hard as some make it out to be. Yes, the labs are marked hard, but if you invest a good amount of time into them you will get a good grade. Midterms are fair and so is the exam. If you go into the course knowing that you will do well, then you will succeed. This course is definately one that you should take if you are in Hon. Biology.

i think the worst part of this course is going to be the 8:30 lecture
its gonna be hell tying to wake up for it

I took the course with Dr. McClelland in the Winter 2011 term. Compared to other courses I found it to have a slightly lighter course load compared to other courses. I found the 3 tests and exam straightforward and fair. If you studied what the prof posted on his slides in detail then you did fairly well on his tests. The labs were well...not so great. The labs themselves do need restructuring and this is why the actual labs were pretty poorly organized. HOWEVER, if you got a TA that took this into account and actually tried to teach you proper lab report writeup skills versus simply trying to make the "data" work then you can do pretty well on the labs. My TA focused on having us learn the proper way to write a report and less on the inconsistent results.

Overall, this course is one of my favorite's taken at Mac and I highly suggest it if you like physiology.

the lecture material for this course was pretty reasonable/easy to learn.
i would say the material from physio was easier than cell bio and genetics.
the only hard thing about this course like others have pointed out are the lab write-ups.

tips for labs:
the thing that i lost marks on - was not including enough graphs.
make sure to create graphs analyzing the trends between males/females and other categories that seem relevant.
the data from the labs comes from the you-students in the lab section.
so its pretty interesting to make graphs and see how you did compared to others.
also it doesn't hurt to do statistical analysis for the data - standard deviation, error bars.

overall i thought the tests were really easy - especially since they are cumulative and you are forced to go over the material many times since there are 3 midterms.
we even had a midterm a couple of days before the exam so there wasn't that much material to go over.

also don't waste time reading the textbook. everything you needed to know was in the slides.
just memorize the slides in side out! - and you should a really good mark.
its too bad the midterms weren't worth more.
the labs were worth has much as the midterms 30%/30%, and 40% exam.

Also wanted to add that 2A03 is a pre-req for a bunch of third year bio courses, so if you do plan on not taking it in second year, you won't be able to take those courses in third year. Plan ahead, guys

As for the coruse itself, the lecture material is REALLY INTERESTING. It's much easier to relate to human physiology than concepts from cell biology, for example. This makes it easier to learn and thus do well in the course if you put the effort in.

The lab component was a pain, but it all comes down to your TA. Get a great TA and you will get great feedback and improve your formal lab write-up skills. Get a bum TA and you will make the same mistakes again and again

I hope they organize the course better this year.
Oh and here are all the lectures for the entire course, with the blanks filled. You're welcome.

Again depends on the person. I found cell bio WAY easier and cell bio was much better than physio.

Originally Posted by MCHEDDENITE

Again depends on the person. I found cell bio WAY easier and cell bio was much better than physio.

YES Cell bio was WAY fuc*ing easier and more interesting than physio, I love cell bio though.

Originally Posted by Angoose

Heya everyone. I'm currently going into honours biology for second year and bio2a03 is not a required course for me. However, I've noticed that it is "Strongly recommended" for many biology courses in third year, and required for bio3aa3. I've heard that the course is nightmarish in terms of the labs though. Would it be wise to take it at the same time as orgo, or should I hold off on bio2a03 until the summer or the following year?

Unlike the other comments, I actually liked both Cell Bio and Animal Phys- my two favourite courses of second year probably. But anyway, I HIGHLY recommend you take it and not just because it's a pre-req for a whole bunch of upper year Physio and Bio courses but also because the course was SO SO interesting, we covered several human systems including: Circulatory, Renal, Respiratory, as well as some Endocrine. First year bio courses weren't exactly my favourite, so it was nice to finally get a course I was really interested in. But anyway, the course itself is not bad at all, it's just the labs. And even those, it really depends on your TA. I had a decent TA, so although I lost a lot of marks for very simple things, I know a lot of other people who did well on those too. Also, everyone takes Orgo (almost) as well as other Bio courses, so you won't really be alone. Also, if you don't take Bio 2A03, you can't take it in the summer because it's not offered. You could maybe do the second half of orgo in the summer or something if you're worried about your second year courseload.

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Unlike the other comments, I actually liked both Cell Bio and Animal Phys- my two favourite courses of second year probably. But anyway, I HIGHLY recommend you take it and not just because it's a pre-req for a whole bunch of upper year Physio and Bio courses but also because the course was SO SO interesting, we covered several human systems including: Circulatory, Renal, Respiratory, as well as some Endocrine. First year bio courses weren't exactly my favourite, so it was nice to finally get a course I was really interested in. But anyway, the course itself is not bad at all, it's just the labs. And even those, it really depends on your TA. I had a decent TA, so although I lost a lot of marks for very simple things, I know a lot of other people who did well on those too. Also, everyone takes Orgo (almost) as well as other Bio courses, so you won't really be alone. Also, if you don't take Bio 2A03, you can't take it in the summer because it's not offered. You could maybe do the second half of orgo in the summer or something if you're worried about your second year courseload.

I hear that physics1b03 is becoming mandatory for bio2a03. Right now I'm thinking of holding off on b03 though and taking something like psych2ap3 because I hear it's really, really interesting. I'm just afraid it'll be too hard haha.

Originally Posted by Angoose

I hear that physics1b03 is becoming mandatory for bio2a03. Right now I'm thinking of holding off on b03 though and taking something like psych2ap3 because I hear it's really, really interesting. I'm just afraid it'll be too hard haha.

Honestly, I heard a lot about how hard it was before taking it, and once I actually took the course I realized that it wasn't all true. So don't just assume it's difficult and use that as an excuse to stay away from the course. I think you'll really miss out of if you do

Originally Posted by ~*Sara*~

Honestly, I heard a lot about how hard it was before taking it, and once I actually took the course I realized that it wasn't all true. So don't just assume it's difficult and use that as an excuse to stay away from the course. I think you'll really miss out of if you do

I'm mainly, mainly, mainly scared about orgo and whether I'll have time to focus on other courses if I want to do well in it. Last term I had chem1aa3 and physics1L03 in the same term and I ended up doing poorly in physics since I didn't really spend too much time on it. However, I also had psych xx3, biom03 and lingaa3.